BOXLEY, a village and a parish in Hollingbourn district, Kent. The village stands at the foot of a barren range of chalk hills, 2 miles NE by N of Maidstone; has a post office under Maidstone; and was once a market-town. The parish includes part of Penenden Heath; and comprises 5,745 acres. Real property, £11,677. Pop., 1,470. Houses, 289. The property is much subdivided. The manor was given by Richard I. to Boxley Abbey; passed, at the dissolution, to Sir Thomas Wyatt; and belongs now to the Earl of Romney. The Abbey was founded, in 1146, by William d'Ypres, Earl of Kent; stood 1½ mile WSW of the village; was Cistertian, mitred, and well endowed; had an image of St. Rumbald and an automaton crucifix, which attracted crowds of pilgrims, and were publicly burnt at the Reformation; and is now all effaced except the foundations. Boxley Abbey Mansion, adjacent, is the seat of Major M. G. Best; Boxley House is the seat of Mrs. Mercer; and Boxley Park is the seat of E. Lushington, Esq. A deep thick vein of fuller's earth occurs at Grove; and was worked so early as 1630. Fulling-mills stood on the neighbouring rivulets; and have been succeeded by papermills. A Roman urn and several other Roman relics have been found in the neighbourhood of Grove. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £834.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. The church is decorated English; and contains the remains of the poet Sandys, and tombs of the Wyatts and others. There is a national school.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))